Press

In 1982, the oldest living plate camera makers, Fred and Arthur Gandolfi, decided to close their family business in Peckham, London. Throughout his career, Ken Griffiths set out to capture vanishing worlds. The unique Gandolfi brothers and their workshop proved to be the inspiration for a documentary Ken Griffiths directed entitled Gandofi: Family Business, which sensitively captures the last years of the brother’s lives. Ken Griffiths inspired his brother David and sister-in-law Pam, along with friends Laurie Lewis, Joe Dunton and Mic Dixon to collaborate with him on what became a twenty year journey. The final film encompasses Ken Griffiths’ classical framing style, along with his vibrant sense of humour. With support from a National Museum of Photography, Film and Television grant, the documentary was completed and premiered in January 2004, at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival both in Sheffield and at the National Film Theatre, London.

An article entitled Two Grumpy Old Men by Kevin Jackson featured in The Independent on Sunday's Talk of the Town on 25th January 2004. Ken Griffiths summed up his method of working with the Gandolfi plate camera, “It’s a matter of selection in advance instead of selection afterward. With your standard 35 mil camera, you’re often tempted just to spray off shots and do the choosing later. With a camera that makes just one image at a time, you have to plan out what you want to do carefully and you have to really want to do it…”